Foundations Review Sheet
I)
G)
H)
Neolithic Age
Hunter-gatherers, nomads vs. agriculturalists
Neolithic Revolution and consequences
Agriculturalists vs. Pastoralists
Patriarchal vs. Egalitarian
Urbanization and effects on society
1) -specialization
2) -classes
3) -religion
4) -disease
5) -environmental impact
Demography
1) What factors influence population growth and decline?
2) Immunity? Disease pools?
Impact of climate
Labor vs. Leisure
A)
B)
C)
D)
River Valley Civilizations: Be able to compare and contrast
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Indus Valley
Yellow River Valley
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
F)
II)
III)
Ages
A) Be able to sequence the “Big Picture” ideas and events of the
Bronze, Iron and Classical Age peoples
B) Bronze Age
C) Iron Age
D) Dark Age of Mediterranean
E) Classical Age
1) Poleis
2) Impact of Alexander
F) Persia, Rome, Han, Maurya, Gupta, Greek
1) Classes
2) Government
3) Belief systems
G) Be able to compare and contrast the
Classical empires listed above
IV)
Axial Age
A) Belief Systems
1) Locations
2) Impact
3) Comparisons
Examples of Foundations Exam Questions
1. Which ONE of the following indicators would lead to population growth, rather than decline?
a. Densely populated cities encouraged the spread of diseases.
b. Interaction with virgin soil locations.
c. Democratization of metallurgy with new iron farming tools.
d. High infant mortality among newcomers.
2. Which of the following contributed significantly to the fall of both the western Roman and the
Han empires? a. The destruction of overland trade routes, b. irregularities in the flow of the silver
trade, c. new military technologies, d. invasions by borderland peoples.
3. Most early civilizations before 600 BCE shared which of the following characteristics? a. animal
herds and portable houses, b. large standing armies, and elected governments, c. urban centers, growing
populations, and writing systems, d. caravan trade, underground cities, and large ships.
4. Initiated under the Qin, this system maintained that human nature is essentially wicked
and that people behave in an orderly fashion only if compelled by strict laws and harsh
punishments. a. Confucianism, b. Legalism, c. Daoism, d. Centralism, e. Mandate of Heaven
5. Which, from earliest to most recent, is the correct sequence? a. Zhou, Shang, Han, Qin, b.
Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, c. Han, Qin, Shang, Zhou, d. Qin, Shang, Zhou, Han
6. Which of the following would best fit in with the beliefs of a practicing Buddhist? a.
Justice should be based on the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, b. each
individual should place his or her trust in a personal savior in order to ensure a place in
heaven, c. at the end of the world, God will judge all sinners and condemn them to eternal
torment, d. Yogic discipline and mastery of the body helps to improve the quality of one’s
spirit, e. people are born and reborn into lives of suffering but can escape this cycle by
attaining enlightenment.
Examples of types of questions you should attempt to figure out:
1. Compare Greek systems with the South Asian and East Asian systems.
2. How did sedentary life lead to the Agricultural Revolution?
3. How did the Agricultural Revolution lead to urbanization and complex governmental systems?
4. How do empires develop? What do empires have in common?
Definitions? Historical Examples?
Ancestor worship
Holocene
Buffer states
Humanism
Bureaucrats
Linguistics
Centralization
Monotheism
City-state
Nomadic
Codified law
Oligarchy
Colonization
Pastoralists
Cultural diffusion
Patriarchy
Cuneiform
Polis
Desertification
Propaganda
diaspora
Salinization
Domestication
Sedentary
Dualism
Social structure
Empire
Tyrant
Epidemiology
Vedas
Fertile crescent
Virgin soil
Filial piety
Ziggurat